10/15/18 – Our clients at Toledo Museum of Art, Princeton University Art Museum, The Ringling, Columbus Museum of Art, and the Fralin Museum of Art all have or have had major exhibitions opening last week or this week! Whew. Guess the fall season is in full swing.

9/19/18 – Our client, Princeton University Art Museum, announced this week that renowned architect Sir David Adjaye has been selected to design a new art museum that will provide “dramatically enlarged space for the exhibition and study of the museum’s encyclopedic collections, special exhibitions and art conservation, as well as object-study classrooms and office space for the 100-person museum staff.” We can’t wait to learn more about the unfolding new museum project.

9/7/18 – Welcome to the team, Jodi Beznoska! This has been an exciting week with a lot of news among our clients…what an introduction to the wonderful world of Blue Water! We’re so glad to count you as our colleague.

8/20/18 – Still reflecting on the important two-day workshop we facilitated with one of our museum clients last week. We spent dedicated time outlining a strategic communications plan for the next year and a half, and sought input from staff at every level about the stories we should be telling. We learned so much by listening! Focusing on a plan will allow us to be proactive in our communications, and we’ll be sure our efforts are aligned with our clients larger strategic goals, too.

8/3/18 – Just three months later, we’re beginning to see results from our April media tour in NYC! One of our clients participated in an interview with a major national publication today, thanks to the groundwork we laid during those meetings.

7/26/18 – July is usually a quiet time for pitching arts stories, as several national-level publications close down or significantly scale back for the entire month. But sometimes fascinating pitches withstand even the summer holiday. Major exhibitions opening this fall at Toledo Museum of Art and Princeton University Art Museum have continued to capture editorial attention this month. We’re excited to see what comes of all this interest.

7/15/18 – The next generation of chefs and hospitality workers will learn in a state-of-the-art culinary school that just broke ground at Columbus State Community College in Ohio, thanks to our clients at DesignGroup. Bon Appétit!

6/23/18 – Introducing the newly elected Vice President of PR Boutiques International, Lynnette Werning! She had a great, fun, informative week in Boston at the largest PRBI conference to date.

6/13/18 – Lynnette just wrapped up a massive road trip across the Midwest, taking several client and new business meetings. Tomorrow Lynnette, Sara and Amber all travel to a major planning meeting with another of our clients in Kissimmee, Florida. Next week Lynnette travels to the annual PRBI conference in Boston. Is it possible this is the busiest Blue Water travel month ever?

5/22/18 – Bird watchers and art lovers share the practice of close looking, as Ed Rothstein notes in his Wall Street Journal review of Before Audubon: Alexander Wilson’s Birds of the United States. Blue Water was excited to facilitate this coverage on behalf of Toledo Museum of Art.

5/3/18 – The Libbey legacy is an essential part of the history of the city of Toledo and the Toledo Museum of Art. A new exhibition in TMA’s Glass Pavilion celebrates 200 years of Libbey Glass, and today Sara and the team at TMA hosted a preview for local and regional media.

4/17/18 – Lynnette and Amber traveled to the Big Apple earlier this week to meet with editors and writers on behalf of five of our museum clients. Blue Water’s annual media tour provides incredible value to our clients, and we already know the meetings and relationships will yield results throughout the coming year.

3/15/18 – One of the best days in the Blue Water calendar year is the day we pick up the print copy of the annual Museums special section in The New York Times. Three of our clients were featured this year: Princeton University Art Museum, Cincinnati Art Museum and The Ringling.

3/2/18 – Renowned garden columnist Robin Lane Fox of The Financial Times just wrote about our client, Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, and we couldn’t be more pleased with his review.

2/21/18 – Tonight Lynnette will attend a special reception at The Ringling celebrating the opening of Toni Dove: Embodied Machines, the first survey of Dove’s pioneering work, which includes an interactive installation called “The Dress that Eats Souls.” The exhibition was featured in The New York Times last October.

2/2/18 – Lots of fun to highlight the interesting musical background of one of our museum directors with this artnet News piece.

1/21/18 – Today is the first day of a very long and busy Blue Water week, full of travel for all of our team and events touching almost every one of our clients. We’ve got openings and exhibition launches and visiting national journalists and celebrations ahead!

12/15/17 – I had one of the most exciting and successful days of pitching today! The responsiveness from editors as we head into the holidays has been incredible.

12/7/17 – Another year, another moment to reflect on the full and fascinating story of Blue Water Communications. This year has been particularly momentous. We’re 11 years old today, and I couldn’t be more thankful for everyone who has been part of our voyage.

11/27/17 – We were pleased to coordinate this Wall Street Journal review of Glorious Splendor: Treasures of Early Christian Art, on view at Toledo Museum of Art. Visitors to the Museum will enjoy this focused exhibition through the holiday season.

11/8/17 – The director of Marie Selby Botanical Gardens had a fun interview with a national magazine today, discussing Selby’s upcoming exhibition of Andy Warhol’s Flowers, opening in February. It’s going to be an incredible show!

10/27/17 – This weekend the New York Times Fall Fine Arts and Exhibits section is published, and several of our museum clients will be included in the special section. Many of these stories have been in the works for six months or more. We love it when our dedication to building relationships, pitching and following up results in recognition for our clients!

10/6/17 – Today we are excited to announce our official merger with David James Group. This partnership brings an expanded palette of available public relations, marketing and branding services to our clients. We look forward to our future with DJG.

9/30/17 – After a whirlwind week of travel and meetings with three clients, I’m gearing up for something even bigger next week. Stay tuned…

9/13/17 – Last week we had a team meeting to discuss how best to assist our clients in the path of Hurricane Irma, following the storm’s landfall. Thankfully, Irma’s affect on our clients was very limited, but it was critical to have a plan in place. We hope our clients were reassured, knowing we were on call to assist with crisis communications at any point.

8/19/17 – Our compression planning process with a new client is always invigorating. It’s even more exciting when the participants are fully invested, as they have been this week at The Fralin Museum of Art at the University of Virginia. We can’t wait to dive into our work with this team.

7/18/17 – We’ve had a few opportunities to coordinate with other PR professionals lately, working on projects for our clients from different angles and areas of expertise. It’s been refreshing to approach these projects through our own strategies and strengths, and still remain professional and collaborative with one another. Shouldn’t it always be this way?

7/7/17 – It’s rare, but sometimes when I’m visiting a client and attending a special event, I get to spend time with yet another client and enjoy the pleasure of his company. We like our work, but we like our clients as people even more!

6/21/17 – Just got an exciting nibble on a pitch that started back in April with our New York media tour. The seeds we planted with those editorial meetings are still growing, and I’m confident we’ll start seeing results in the coming months!

6/14/17 – Every year I attend the PR Boutiques International conference, and every year I think it can’t get better. And yet…this year has been my favorite conference to date! I learn more from my colleagues at the annual conference than I do through any other form of professional development. That’s why I’m excited about being elected as secretary of the group at this year’s annual meeting. Taking notes and reporting at our meetings will only reinforce the great lessons I learn from the other members.

5/17/17 – I’m back in New York this week, meeting with media who are visiting a couple of artists’ studios. Watching writers approach art from many angles and listening as they ask fascinating questions gives me welcome perspectives. It’s a privilege to help these artists, and the museums that commission them, tell stories.

4/28/17 – I’m returning to the office today after a week spent in New York with Sara, meeting with editors, writers and producers on behalf of many of our clients. It was probably Blue Water’s greatest undertaking to date, and I couldn’t be more thrilled with the responses from media and the outcomes for the participants. And we’re just getting started! I trust this media tour will yield more than we can even predict for years to come.

4/3/17 – I spent some quality time at a museum conference today. While this idea may be simple, I’m often reminded of it when I’m around bright professionals in our field: great ideas breed even greater ideas. I loved hearing about the innovative programs museums are developing, and the ways they’re collaborating.

3/14/17 – Making the annual Museums section in The New York Times is a goal for many of our clients. We’re proud of the work that goes into getting coverage, like this story about sensory exhibitions in art museums, which features our client, The Ringling.

2/8/17 – Today’s media training was truly enjoyable. The participants were engaged and open to learning, and came away from the training with a set of skills many of them didn’t have before! It’s always amazing to see the improvements in participants after just a few hours of training.

1/26/17 – We’re in the early stages of planning a VERY BIG Blue Water project that will benefit many of our clients. I haven’t been this excited about one of our great ideas in a long time! Stay tuned.

1/10/17 – Many of our clients rely on a traditional SWOT analysis when making strategic plans for their institutions. This new approach to SWOT captured our attention, asking “What is Sacred?”, “What would be Wonderful?”, “What are we Over?” and “Who should be on our Team?”.

12/20/16 – Reflecting on 2016, one of my favorite museum experiences was walking through Anne Patterson’s “Pathless Woods” at The Ringling earlier this month. This video captures the installation brilliantly.

12/7/16 – Today is Blue Water’s ten year anniversary! I’m proud, but my greatest feeling is one of gratitude for the incredible clients we’ve worked with over the years. I always say our work is about building relationships, and the best ones are with our clients, who continue to give us fascinating stories to tell, year after year.

11/11/16 – Five years ago, Blue Water was on the ground for the grand opening of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. A milestone day in Blue Water’s history, over a hundred media were credentialed for this special event. I was on staff at the Museum at the time, but loved working with Blue Water as a media handler, along with an incredible group of volunteers and staff who made sure the media had a great experience throughout the day. Congratulations to the Museum on five successful years. We wish you so many more!

10/17/16 – Steve Stevens at The Columbus Dispatch agrees that a trip to Cincinnati is in order this fall. The Cincinnati Art Museum’s exhibition Van Gogh: Into the Undergrowth features van Gogh paintings from collections around the world, and takes a look at his poetic depictions of the forest floor. This worthwhile trip to an art museum is best followed by an autumn hike through nature.

9/26/16 – Hyperallergic’s assessment of the nonpartisan political advertising exhibition, I Approve This Message at Toledo Museum of Art, is a clear reminder of the important work of all museums. The encouragement of critical thinking through art is something I love about our clients.

9/11/16 – Hundreds joined together to show respect for our nation’s First Responders yesterday, as a beam from the World Trade Center was installed in a monument at Toledo Memorial Park. I was honored to join the crowd and help the media in attendance as we recognized these real heroes.

8/25/16 – I can’t remember a time in Blue Water history when we’ve had to stop pitching a project because of the overwhelming interest! We’ve filled every single space in an upcoming media tour for a client. Very exciting!

8/11/16 – I enjoyed spending today at Toledo Memorial Park. We facilitated media visits as they reported on the construction progress of the Park’s new 9/11 First Responders Last Call Memorial. The structure will feature a beam from the World Trade Center.

7/30/16 – Pleased to see such a prominent exhibition review featuring one of our favorite museums, Columbus Museum of Art, in the daily paper of another of our favorite cities, Toledo! CMA’s Picasso exhibition is not to be missed, and we’ve enjoyed pitching the story throughout its stay in Columbus.

7/15/16 – One of my favorite freelance writers is visiting Toledo Museum of Art today, checking out everything the Museum is offering this summer. With four exhibitions on view, all fascinating, I don’t know how she’ll have time to see everything in a day!

6/28/16 – We’re getting some incredible interest in Toledo Museum of Art’s upcoming exhibition, I Approve This Message. Political editors and producers love the idea of covering it while in Ohio for the Republican National Convention in July. We get to tell the story of how an art museum can teach people to truly see political advertising for what it is, and can encourage voters to participate in democracy.

6/13/16 – It’s always a pleasure spending time in Princeton. I loved seeing the new Starns work installed near the entrance of the Museum, and especially enjoyed spending time with our clients. Over lunch, we even discovered a fascinating family connection from the past. Part of me will forever be a Jersey girl!

6/1/16 – Congratulations to our clients at the Taft Museum of Art, who are celebrating record-breaking attendance for the exhibition Daubigny, Monet, Van Gogh: Impressions of Landscape. It was an honor to work on such a monumental project with them.

5/26/16 – As we head into Memorial Day weekend, we’ve been helping coordinate media coverage of Toledo Memorial Park’s groundbreaking ceremony for the 9/11 First Responders Last Call Memorial. The structure will be built at the cemetery and will feature a beam from the World Trade Center. We’re proud to be part of commemorating and memorializing the sacrifice of first responders everywhere.

5/22/16 – We’re wrapping up another annual PR Boutiques International conference today, this time in beautiful San Francisco. Each year of attending the conference, I’ve gained so much insight about the PR profession, and have learned from the failures and successes of my outstanding PRBI colleagues from around the world. But by far the best part of the conference is the opportunity to get to know our colleagues as people. It’s the same with our clients. We love the work, and we love the people we work with even more.

5/2/16 – It’s fun to pitch an exhibition featuring the work of an artist whose name is everywhere right now! Iris van Herpen: Transforming Fashion will be on view at the Grand Rapids Art Museum beginning this October. Meanwhile, the artist is getting a lot of exciting media attention, including this recent article in Forbes on wearable tech.

4/22/16 – The current exhibition of American Indian artwork at Toledo Museum of Art is gorgeous. As I walked through the galleries the first time, I kept catching my breath in awe. This article does a great job of reminding us of the humanity behind the craft.

4/7/16 – Seeing the professional photos of a new building is one of our favorite project milestones! We’ve loved sharing the gorgeous images of The Ringling’s new Center for Asian Art with editors this week.

3/28/16 – We are over the moon about welcoming our new colleague, Nancy, to the team this week! Her experience is a perfect fit for Blue Water, and she’s a lot of fun, too.

3/17/16 – The Taft Museum of Art has been a PR case study. As clients, they did everything right. We are so happy for their success! The story of the Museum’s Daubigny exhibition is featured in this fantastic New York Times piece.

2/12/16 – We’re excited about The Ringling‘s new Center for Asian Art in the Dr. Helga Wall-Apelt Gallery of Asian Art because of the attention and scholarship it will bring to the arts and culture of Asia. But the building is a striking work of art in its own right, and we enjoyed working with The Architect’s Newspaper as they featured the beautiful, green terra cotta tiles on their “Facades” blog.

1/22/16 – We had an energetic meeting today with our clients at DesignGroup! We’re finding great momentum, utilizing a survey of editors in DesignGroup’s target publications. We always enjoy starting a dialogue with editors, learning more about their interests and needs, and then helping our clients meet those needs directly.

12/17/15 – Today Julie Iovine of the Wall Street Journal announced the Best Architecture of 2015. We were thrilled to read her endorsement of Columbus Museum of Art‘s expansion project as one of the top projects of the year.

11/11/15 – Today I’m in Chicago checking out several prospective venues for a future client event. With so much architectural splendor in the city, how will we ever choose just one space? It’s been a visual feast!

10/13/15 – It’s finally here! After many, many months of pitching and planning, it’s time to share the new wing at the Columbus Museum of Art with the media. We can’t wait to see the faces of the community leaders and supporters as they get their first peek at the renovated Museum during the media preview.

9/21/15 – Congratulations to our clients at Princeton University Art Museum on their recent acquisition of a rare Luminist masterpiece by Fitz Henry Lane. Ship in Fog is an outstanding addition to the Museum’s American art holdings. We were delighted to assist with the announcement of this seminal acquisition.

8/25/15 – Today we distributed the exhibition press release for the Taft Museum of Art‘s exciting exhibition, which opens next February, exploring Daubigny’s influence on the Impressionists. We can’t wait to start pitching this one to writers and editors. It’s a beautiful exhibition with an interesting story. Plus, it’s the only venue for the show in the U.S.!

7/28/15 – Lynnette, Amber and I just gave a presentation of Blue Water’s capabilities to a potential new client. I must say, when all of our experience is outlined in a presentation, it’s very impressive! It would be a particular pleasure to work with this institution, not only because of the many cultural offerings, but also because of its proximity to Blue Water’s headquarters.

6/11/15 – Just wrapped up several days in London with our brilliant colleagues from PR Boutiques International! Exploring the city was a blast, but it was even more fun to reconnect with fellow PRBI members as we learned and celebrated the successes of the past year.

5/13/15 – I have been exploring and pitching Civil War blogs on behalf of the Toledo Museum of Art‘s exhibition The American Civil War: Through Artists’ Eyes. There are some really interesting sites. I remembered a colleague from my TV days who was very active in Civil War re-enacting, and he put me in touch with the biggest website/magazine for re-enactors. Also heard from an educator who runs a website dedicated to classroom teaching about the Civil War through images and technology. He seemed very interested in sharing information on the exhibition as well. That’s what I love about our work…it’s something different every day!

5/1/15 – Launching our work with a new client is always exhilarating! I love that our initial planning and brainstorming sessions provide benchmarks for future success. I can’t wait to sit down with DesignGroup in a few years and review the dreams and ideas we had in our first official client meeting, just to see how far we’ve come.

4/17/15 – The past two days have been spent with a keen focus — and it has been amazing. As a new member of the Blue Water team, I cannot express enough how delightful it is to work with thoughtful, inventive and fun-loving people. But the best part? We got an unfathomable amount of work done for clients in a maximized amount of time. Efficiency? Sure, we do that too.

4/9/15 – I’m spending a couple of whirlwind days in NYC with our clients from Columbus Museum of Art! We’re meeting with several editors to talk about the Museum’s new wing, which opens this October. It’s gratifying to see all our efforts and planning come together when we sit down and make personal connections with arts and architecture writers and editors. These are prime opportunities to tell the Museum’s story.

3/24/15 – Drafting key message points and a long-lead media advisory for the landmark exhibition Daubigny, Monet, Van Gogh: Impressions of Landscape, which opens in February 2016 at the Taft Museum of Art in Cincinnati, the sole U.S. venue. Co-organized by the Taft, it’s the first major international exhibition of a chief forerunner of Impressionism, Charles Francois Daubigny, and will re-examine the origins of the movement by featuring exceptional works by Daubigny, Monet, Pissarro and Van Gogh.

3/13/15 – It’s fun to learn about pockets of art and creativity around the country, and Columbus, Georgia, has been one of those unexpected discoveries for us. This week, Lynnette and I toured Columbus State University’s RiverPark campus, with its incredible facilities and programs within CSU’s College of the Arts. We also visited the studios of Bo Bartlett and Betsy Eby, and explored the ongoing restoration project at the folk art site, Pasaquan. We’re heading back to the Florida office with plenty of inspiration.

2/23/15 – In our work with museums, I’m constantly reminded of how many incredible opportunities our museum clients offer to the public. Today we distributed a media advisory about a series of upcoming lectures by John Elderfield at Princeton University Art Museum. What a fantastic opportunity to learn from the best. There’s always something interesting and new to do at a museum.

2/12/15 – Gratified that the February 2015 issue of The Art Newspaper includes a book review of “Italian Master Drawings from the Princeton University Art Museum,” a major scholarly publication and the first volume since 1977 to focus on the Princeton University Art Museum’s outstanding collection of more than 1,000 Italian drawings. The book accompanied the exhibition 500 Years of Italian Master Drawings from the Princeton University Art Museum, which was on view last year.

2/3/15 – Excited to report that the innovative new graduate program in integrative design at the University of Michigan Stamps School of Art and Design was featured in a piece by the executive editor of Healthcare Design: “A Multidisciplinary Design Approach To Solving The Healthcare Challenge.” This fall the first cohort of students in the program, which focuses on a “wicked problem” facing society and the world, will address the thorny issue of health care.

1/28/15 – This week’s snow storms in the Northeast weren’t quite as extreme as some had predicted; perhaps some of that snowy expectation came our way instead! We’ve had a flurry of new business prospects lately, and we love that they’re all clearly aligned with our focus on the arts, architecture and destinations.

1/5/15 – I appreciated many aspects of The Perlman Music Program’s Sarasota Winter Residency this year: the rehearsals, the Celebration Concert, and the truly glamorous Gala Dinner were all wonderful ways to celebrate the holidays with music. But my favorite program was the Super Strings performance, featuring talented young musicians from throughout the state of Florida. Getting an insider’s look at a rehearsal with Itzhak Perlman was fascinating. Susan Rife of the Herald-Tribune does a wonderful job of capturing the spirit.

12/26/14 – During this season of reflection, a “little brown jug” for consideration, courtesy of the fascinating exhibition Chigusa and the Art of Tea in Japan, on view at Princeton University Art Museum. The exhibition was reviewed in the New York Times yesterday.

12/7/14 – Today we’re marking another year in the life of Blue Water Communications. Here’s to eight incredible years of doing what we love!

11/10/14 – I just spent three days at the 47th annual conference of the International Visual Literacy Association, hosted by Toledo Museum of Art. Every lecture, program and personal encounter reminded me that the slow-looking and sensory experiences associated with Visual Literacy affect every field of study and every aspect of our lives in the 21st century. I was inspired and renewed. It’s no coincidence that these inspirations came in the context of one of my favorite art museums.

10/31/14 – Last night members of the media attended a special preview of the Perlman Music Program/Suncoast’s new project, The Art of the Violin. Artists have transformed twenty violins into unique works of art, which will be on view in galleries around Sarasota, Florida, through February 2015. Then they will be auctioned off to benefit PMP/Suncoast’s education programs. The artists have used these violin “canvases” brilliantly.

10/24/14 – Thrilled that Holland Cotter featured the Princeton University Art Museum’s Kongo across the Waters exhibition in his Week Ahead column in The New York Times!

10/10/14 – Word about George Gershwin’s piano, recently donated to the University of Michigan and fully restored, made it into today’s issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education! This beautiful instrument is certainly a newsworthy gift.

7/16/14 – It’s unseasonably cool in Ohio this week, but the construction project at Columbus Museum of Art is heating up. Our hard hat tour of the site reminded me of the many ways the new wing’s architecture is focused on the Museum’s mission — the construction materials, the layout and even the landscaping plans reflect the Columbus community beautifully.

6/20/14 – After meeting with colleagues at PR Boutiques International’s annual conference this week in Portland, Oregon, I’m even more convinced that our membership in this prestigious organization will bring benefits to each of our clients. Learning with and from our fellow PRBI members was a treasure.

6/17/14 – Today we helped host a media preview for a bright new exhibition at Toledo Museum of Art. There is already a lot of buzz about The Art of Video Games as it makes its first stop in the Midwest.

5/20/14 – We’re humming Beethoven, Schubert and Debussy as we mill about the offices today. Yesterday we got the news that Blue Water will be the agency for the Perlman Music Program/Suncoast. This organization inspires the next generation of concert artists, educators and audiences. Dave and I celebrated by attending a concert last night of the PMP-trained Ariel Quartet.

5/1/14 – I attended a fascinating symposium last night about Arts and Culture as Economic Drivers. The amount of money driven through our community by cultural tourists and residents who support the arts is staggering.

4/18/14 – We’re looking forward to responding to an RFP from a potential new client next week. It’s always fun to talk about Blue Water’s strengths, especially when the project seems perfectly suited for our experience!

3/7/14 – We were privileged to write a feature story about the Toledo Museum of Art’s investment in innovative green initiatives in the March/April issue of Museum magazine, published by the American Alliance of Museums.

2/21/14 – Wow! We had SUCH an exciting new business meeting today. It’s a new museum in one of our favorite cities. Our fingers are crossed…

2/14/14 – We are privileged to work on so many fabulous exhibitions…but The Art of the Louvre’s Tuileries Garden on view at the Toledo Museum of Art through May 11 is one of my all time favorites. It brought back so many great memories of trips to Paris…and made me want to plan another.

1/13/14 – The Princeton University Art Museum’s groundbreaking exhibition New Jersey as Non-Site — the first comprehensive exhibition to recognize New Jersey as a major catalyst for avantgarde art of the 1950s, 60s and 70s — recently received major coverage in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.